What Do You Mean, She Don’t Eat No Meat?

When I told my mom I’ve decided to lay off the meat for a while, her reaction was kind of like this:

“But how can you eat no meat with all this running!?!”

Not only that, but no milk either? What!?!

How would my muscles even work without the protein and calcium of those two things? That’s what I used to think, too, until recently.

So what changed? I started reading books by endurance athletes with impressive careers — and plant-based diets. Like this one and this one.

If those guys can do it, why can’t I give it a try for a while?

So once last month’s juice cleanse was done – and I had been meat and dairy-free for about a week and a half – I figured, why not keep going?

The obvious question people ask me next is Soooo, are you vegan now? I am not. I could eat eggs if I wanted to, and fish. (And thank goodness for soy and coconut ice cream!)

But no: no “vegan” or even “vegetarian” for me. No labels whatsoever. I’m just a runner who decided to lay off meat and dairy for a while — and has been feeling great about it, recovering fantastically from races and long runs and running a wee bit better. Coincidence? Or result? I need more time to evaluate.

Meanwhile, my new favorite foods:

I am obsessed with quinoa! Gaby’s blog (which I used for juicing recipes) has some amazing quinoa salads that I’ve been making – with slight adjustments – all the time.

I’ve also been eating more beans and lentils (both are high in protein), lots of spring-mix salads and at least one avocado a day. Seriously. I bring my own avocado to work and people don’t even find it strange any more.

Finally, after longer workouts, I drink some almond milk with protein powder mixed in. (And make the almond milk recipe from the juice cleanse quite often – love it!)

That’s gotta be plenty of protein, right?

Today’s workout:
Fitness test at the YMCA! A one-mile warm up, then crunches, push-ups and burpees (for 60 seconds each) and a 1.5-mile run. Not sure how all this took nearly an hour, we must’ve talked a lot? We were supposed to push it as hard as we can for the run, but I decided to save it for my 18-mile race on Saturday.

Good idea? Or too conservative? What do you think?

What do you do before races that you know you’ll do for fun – not shooting for a time goal or anything like that?